Short-circuiting switch



May 6 1924. v

W. E. OSTERHOUT ET AL SHORT CIRCU ITING SWITCH Original Filed Feb. 4. 1921 INVENTORS vV/W/am f. War/7007404 WITNESSES: Q9. :5.

ATTORNEY Patented Mayfi, 1924. 9

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM E os'rEmeIo' 'r, or 13nooxLYN,-NEw YORK, AND EWING x. LYNN, or EAs'r moxEEsroR'r, PENNSYLVANIA, AssIoNoEs mo WESTINGHOUSE ELEc'rEIc a MANU rAc'rUmNo courANY, A CORPORATION or PENNSYLVANIA.

. SEOBT-CIBCUITING SWITCH. I

I Application fled Iebrulry 4', 1981, Serial Ho. 442,386. Renewed March 17, 19M.

To all whom it may comem."

Be it known that we, WILLIAM E. Osmanon'r, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings 6 and State of New York, and EWING LYNN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of East McKeesport, in the county of. Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania,

have invented a new and useful Improvement in Short-Circuiting Switches, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to centrifugally actuated short-circuiting devicesfor dynamo-electric machines, and it has .particular relation to single-phase motors of the commutator ty e t at are adapted for repulsion operation uring the starting operation and for induction operation after a predetermined s eed has been attained.

One 0 ject of ourinvention is to provide sinlilple, efiective and inexpensive centrifu- '8'" circuiting device of' the above esignated character.

Another object of our invention is to provide contact .mechanism of a satisfactory type that. shall be adapted to be mounted upon the commutator cylinder whereby certain segments thereof may be readily shortcircuit to en agement with the ends of the commu- -tator ars. I

Our present invention differs from those previously described in that a disk of insulating material has spaced conducting members imbedded therein that are connected together electrically .by an annular conducting member which is moved circumferentially when the machine attains a predey actuated means for operatin a shortterm-ined speed. Means are rovided whereby the pressure on the dis remains constant at all times, thus insiiring that a good contact shall be made between the short-circuiting. member and the imbedded contact members.

is a side view, partially in elevation and par tially in section,'of a portion of a commutator cylinder provided with a short-circuiting device constructed in accordance with our-invention. The section is taken along the line II of Fig. 2. a

Fig. 2 is an end elevational view of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1..

Fig. 3 is an elevationalview of one of the detail structures employed in a device constructed in accordance with our invention.

In the drawings, we show a commutator cylinder 3 comprising a plurality of'spaced insulated conducting segments 4. A disk 5, composed of insulating material and having imbedded therein a plurality of spaced conducting members 6, is mounted upon the end of the commutator. cylinder 3. Each of the-contact members 6 is rovided with a projection 7 which extends 1nt0, and is electricall tain 0 the commutator segments i. The contact surface of the members 6 is flush with that of the insulating disk 5.

The commutator cylinder 3 is mounted upon a shaft 8 upon which is rotatably mounted a disk 9, composed of conducting material, provided with a plurality of spaced contact members 10 which, upon rotation of the disk 9, engage and electrically connect the several contact members 6. A supporting disk 11 is rigidly mounted upon the shaft 8 in spaced relation to the disk 9. Intermediate the disks 9 and 11 is disposed a compression spring 12. This spring serves to cause the contact members 10 on the disk 9 to engage either the contact members 6 or the intermediate insulating surface of the disk 5 with a constant pressure, as the distance between the disks 9 and 11 is never varied.

Upon the disk 11 are pivotally mounted two centrifugally actuated Weight members 13 by means of pins 14. Each of the weight members is provided with a slot 15 within which is disposed a pin 16 mounted and mechanically attached to, ceron the disk 9. The weight members 13 are tact members 6. However, when the-machine attains a predetermined speed, the weight members 13 will rotate about their pivotal connections 14 against the action of the tension spring 18 and move to their outermost positions. This movement of the weights causes a rotation of the disk 9 by means of the connection between the pin 16 and slot 15, causing the contact fingers 10 to engage and short circuit the contact members 6.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that we have provided a desirable short-circuiting device. One of the chief features of our invention is mounting the insulating disk upon the end of the commutator cylinder and attaching the contact members thereto. As many contact members may be provided as are deemed necessary to properly short circuit the commutator cylinder.

Another advantageous feature of our invention is the use of the com ression spring 3 in combination with a s ort circuiting disk subjected to rotative movement only. This combination serves to exert a constant pressure on the disk 9 and, therefore, between the contact fingers 10 and the disk 5 or the contact members 6, as the case may be.

While we have shown and described in detail but a single application of our invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so liinited, but is susceptible of various minor changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof, and we desire, therefore, that only such limitations shall be placed thereupon as are imposed by the priorart or as are specifically set forth in the appended claims.

We claim as our invention:

1. In a dynamo-electric machine, a plurality of contact members disposed in annular arrangement, a relatively rotatably mounted member disposed adjacent to said contact members and provided with members adapted to engage said contact members upon movement of said rotatably mounted member, and additional means for maintaining a constant pressure between said cont-act engaging members and said co-operating members.

2. In a dynamo-electric machine, a disk composed of insulating material and having a plurality of contact members mounted a substantially constant pressure between said disk and said contact fingers. v

3. In a dynamo-electric machine, a disk composed of insulating material and havin a plurality of contact members 'imbedd therein, the outer surface of said contact members being substantially-flush with the surface of said disk, a relatively rotatably mounted member disposed adjacent to said disk and provided with contact fingers adapted to engage said contact members when said rotatable member is moved, means for actuating said rotatable member under predetermined conditions, and a spring adapted to cause said contact fingers to engage said disk with a substantially constant pressure.

4. In a dynamo-electric machine, a disk composed of insulating material and having a plurality of contact members imbedded therein, the outer surface of said contact members being substantially flush with the surface of said disk, a relatively rotatably mounted member disposed adjacent to said disk and provided with contact fin rs adapted to engage said contact mem rs when said rotatable member is moved, a spring adapted to cause said contact fingers to engage said disk with a substantially constant pressure, and'centrifugally actuated weights connected to said rotatable disk by means of a pin-and-slot connection.

5. In a dvnamo-electricmachine, a disk composed of insulating material and having a plurality of contact members imbedded therein, the outer surface of said contact members being substantially flush with the surface of said disk, a relatively rotatably mounted member disposed adjacent to said disk and provided with contact fin ers adapted to engage said contact mem ers when said rotatable member is moved, a spring adapted to cause said contact fingers to engage said disk with a substantially constant pressure, and centrifugally actuated weight connected to said rotatable disk by means of a lost-motion connection.

6. In a dynamo-electric machine, a disk composed of insulating material and having a plurality of contact members imbedded therein, the outer surface of said contact members being substantially flush with the surface of said disk, a relatively rotatably mounted member disposed adjacent to said diskand provided with contact fin ers adapted to engage said contact mem rs when. said rotatable member is moved, a. spring adaptedtocause said contact fingers to engage. said disk with a substantially conarranged that the'relative moments thereofstant pressure, a centrifugally actuated change rapidly. v

' weight member 0 eratively connected to In testimony whereof, we have hereunto 10 move said rotatab e disk under predetersubscribed our names this 29th day of J an- 5 mined conditions, a 5 ring adapted to opnary, 1921.

pose movement of sai weight member, said WILLIAM E. OSTERHOUT, M. E. weight member and said spring being so EWING K. LYNN. 

